Seal of Approval
by BethSHeartbeat
Summary: When Max announces that his mother is coming to stay, Zoe is sent into a complete tail spin. Will it really all be okay, as Max says?
1. Mums the Word

"My mums coming to stay." Max mentioned quietly as they were half asleep and tucked up in bed. Immediately Zoe found herself wide awake and yet she remained quiet for a moment, trying to calm the storm of butterflies in her stomach.  
"When?" Zoe asked, trying to sound calm while her whole body had gone into panic.  
"Tomorrow, she'll be staying until the end of the week." Max replied, sitting up as he felt his partner tense in his arms.  
"And you didn't think to tell me?" Zoe asked, trying to use frustration to mask her fear.  
"Well I didn't have much of a say in the matter, she rang me earlier and told me she'd be here tomorrow. It seems that she's been talking to Robyn and now she knows that we've got a flat together and so now that it sounds serious, she wants to meet you." Zoe had forgotten all about Robyn, Max and Zoe had spoken about meeting parents before but had always decided to do it when they felt ready and at this point, Zoe certainly did not. "Zo', stop worrying, she'll love you baby, almost as much as I do."  
"Somehow I doubt that." Zoe sat for a moment, her mind wandered to all the possible reasons Max's mum could have to hate her. "Does she know there's an age gap?"  
"Not unless Robyn's told her, it seriously won't matter though."  
"What does she know about me? And why wouldn't it matter?" Zoe asked, unable to keep calm anymore.  
"She knows that you're a consultant, she knows that I love you and she knows how wonderful you are because I tell her every time I speak to her."  
"So she's going to come here expecting someone who's perfect, you're very biased Max."  
"I may be, but it's true." He replied, leaning over to kiss her after he spoke. "She won't care about the age gap because my dad was a lot older than her when they had me." Zoe eased a little, it was a little weight off her mind.  
"She won't be expecting grandchildren will she?" Zoe asked, finally addressing her big concern.  
"No, she doesn't really like children so I doubt we have anything to worry about. Now settle down and go to sleep Zo, you're on an early shift tomorrow." Max reminded her and moved so that they were both lying flat again.  
"One last thing, what time is she coming?"  
"Lunchtime, I've got the day off tomorrow so I'll be here. She'll be here before you come home so I'll cook and you can bring home a bottle."  
"Do you want me to see if I can take the rest of the week off?" Zoe asked as she ran through the state of the flat in her mind.  
"No of course not, I have the rest of the week off and you already have Thursday off, we'll do something then."  
"Okay." She lay her head back down on Max's chest and waited until she felt his breathing slow down a bit. Once she was sure he was asleep, she set about untangling herself from him and then left the bedroom.

She looked around their flat, and saw the mess that it was in. It was just after 1 am and she started her shift at 9, if she worked quickly then she could get it all tidied and still have a little sleep before she had to go to work. Well that was the idea anyway, in reality she had no idea on how to clean, usually she hired a cleaner but she hadn't got round to getting one for the flat yet. After looking round for a second she decided that it was probably best to start with the kitchen, after all they rarely cooked so it'd just be sorting out takeaway and ready meal packaging.

After a couple of hours she had done the kitchen and had cleaned and put bedding on the bed in the spare room, ready for Max's mum to stay. Zoe moved back towards the living room and fell back on to the sofa, it hardly surprised her to find her shoes lying about everywhere, various clothes discarded across the floor from hours before and empty bottles of wine or beer decorating the floor. They'd only been in the flat for a few weeks and already it looked like a bomb had hit it, she knew that she only had to sort the living room out and then try and tidy the bedroom slightly without waking Max and then she could make her way back to bed, and leave Max just to do up morning dishes and go shopping.

The bang and the sound of Zoe shouting various swear words awoke Max from his sleep, and for a second he thought he'd been dreaming, only then he realised that Zoe was not beside him. He quickly moved out of the bedroom and towards a nearing spotless flat.

"Zoe!" Max groaned, "I'd have done all of this in the morning."

"You've got lots of other stuff to do in the morning, now will you help me up?" Zoe asked from her position on the floor, from where she'd fallen over.

"Are you okay?" Max asked, putting his hand out to help Zoe up. "I told you those shoes were a death trap." He commented, as he saw the shoes laying on the floor that his partner had just tripped over.

"I'm fine and whatever. Just help me take them through to the bedroom." Zoe replied, now content with the majority of the flat.

"Fine, but then it's back to bed. How long have you even been up?" Max asked her, taking the shoes that Zoe had been holding from her and walking back through towards their bed.

"What time is it now?"

"10 to 5."

"4 hours."

"You get up at 7 Zo', you need to go back to sleep now."

"Just let me do our bedroom and then I will." Zoe said as stifled a yawn.

"No, you hate cleaning anyway. Is this about my mum?" Max asked, the importance of tomorrow dawning on him.

"I want her to like me Max, and the flat needed a clean anyway. Now the longer we stand doing nothing, the more time I'm wasting that I could be asleep." Zoe reasoned.

"Fine, if you're going to do this now then let me help."

"Okay."

It only took them an hour to get their bedroom cleaned and to get it looking somewhat like it did when they moved in. They both lay back in bed now, it was 10 to 6 and just over an hour until Zoe had to get up to get ready for work. This time it was Max who snuck out of bed while Zoe lay fast asleep, she'd gone to the effort of making everything nice for his mum, now she deserved a nice breakfast in bed.


	2. Welcome to the Zax Flat

"Hello?" Max asked as he sound of the doorbell rang through the flat. Zoe had only just left the door and he half wondered if she'd forgotten something and couldn't be bothered to unlock the door.  
"Come and help me bring my case up, I didn't realise you'd live so high up." Came the blunt reply of the woman who had brought him up.  
"You're early mum." Max replied, knowing that the breakfast dishes remained unwashed and she had various clothes laying around as she couldn't decide what to wear that morning.  
"Good observation, now come and help." She sounded almost aggressive in tone, he was almost positive that he'd done nothing wrong, after all he hadn't even seen his mum yet.

"About time." Greta Miller sighed as she passed her only child the big case that she'd brought with her.  
"Well we live quite a way up, I had to walk all the way down." He mumbled as he grabbed the case that had been dumped on him and carried it. "Follow me." Max said as he took the lead and opened the front door of the block of flats.  
"So how come it was Robyn that told me that you'd finally gotten serious with a girl?"  
"Because Zoe and I decided to leave meeting each other's parents until we were ready." Max explained as he placed the case on the floor and unlocked the front door of the flat.  
"That doesn't mean you can't tell me at least." Came Greta's blunt reply.  
"Welcome to the Zax flat." Max told her cheerily as he let her into his new home.  
"That what?"  
"Forget it."  
"You couldn't have even cleaned before I arrived?" Asked Greta, slightly disgusted.  
"Don't you dare go there, Zoe's at work right now but she's been up all night cleaning. Fair enough I've not washed up this morning and I've not put Zoe's clothes away but as I said before, you were early." Max raised his voice, he could put up with his mum's disappointment with everything he did but he was not going to let her say anything against Zoe.  
"So the delightful Zoe couldn't even take the day off work to meet me?"  
"No, she's busy doing something that matters." Max replied, moving through to the kitchen to put the kettle on. "This is your room, make yourself at home."

"So this is Zoe?" Greta asked as Max brought her a coffee to where she was sat on the sofa looking at a photo frame containing a recent photo of himself and Zoe.  
"Yeah." Max spoke, smiling as he looked at the photo.  
"She looks nice, way out of your league though. How old is she?" Asked his mum, softening a little as she saw Zoe's photo.  
"She's 40, we're very happy though mum so please try to be happy for us, or get out the disgust before she comes home."  
"It may be hard to believe, but occasionally I'm proud of what you do." Max ignored her, heading back towards the kitchen to wash up the last of the breakfast dishes.  
"I have to go shopping mum, now you can stay here or come and see some of Holby?"  
"I'll come, I wouldn't want you buying food I didn't like."  
"Fine, let me go and find some shoes and we'll go."

"So, what do you need Maxwell?" Greta asked.  
"Everything."  
"Do you not have food in your flat?"  
"Not really, now what do you want for dinner?" Max asked as he slipped a pound into the trolley and headed towards the first aisle.

The trolley was nearly full when Max spotted a familiar face in the shop.  
"Ah if it isn't my favourite porter." Cal spoke as he came up beside the mother and son.  
"Cal." Max replied.  
"Got another one on the go, does Zoe know?" Cal laughed.  
"Caleb, meet my mother, Greta Miller."  
"Oh, hello Ms Miller. Is Max showing you the sights of Holby?"  
"If Tesco is the highlight of Holby then yes, apparently my son and Zoe keep no food in their flat."  
"Can't say I'm surprised, they're probably too busy to eat." Cal replied, earning an glare from Max.  
"Let's go mum, we wouldn't want the freezer stuff to defrost."


	3. Backbone

"Don't burn that." Greta called over from where she was sat reading in the living room whilst Max cooked. He kept half an eye on the clock, mindful that Zoe would have finished her shift by now and would be furious if he burnt the food. He wished that his mum could have come after Zoe returned home, so she wouldn't be so stressed in coming home.

The tell-tale sign of the key in the door came just as Max began to dish up their evening meal, Zoe walked in and took her shoes off and placed them neatly by the door next to her bag.

"Evening Zo." Max said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek mostly so he could whisper in her ear. "Its fine, I'm here right next to you." Zoe looked around the flat and found herself impressed with the state of the flat. "Zoe, this is my mum, Greta."

"Hi, I hope you had a good journey here and that Max has looked after you well." Zoe spoke, unsure of what she was supposed to be saying.

"Well it's my son, he never did learn when it was the right time to offer a guest something." Greta replied bluntly, causing anger to bubble slightly in Zoe's tummy, something she was trying hard to repress.

"Dinners ready." Max interrupted, sensing Zoe needed a get out of that conversation.

"Red wine or white?" Zoe asked as she made her way towards the wine cupboard in their kitchen, the only cupboard that they kept stocked up.

"I don't drink." Came the curt response as Greta sat down at the table.

"Since when?!" Max asked, shocked as he always saw his mum with a wine glass.

"None of your business."

"It's fine, tea, coffee, soft drink?" Zoe offered, placing the bottle of wine that herself and Max favoured on the table anyway.

"Water will be fine."

"Are you sure?" Zoe asked, knowing that if worst came to worst that she could get Max to pop to the local shop.

"I asked for it did I not?" Greta pointed out, Zoe looked at her she was sure she was going to end up saying something, but she remained quiet as she placed the glass of water down on the coaster. She silently thanked Max as she caught him pouring her a large glass of wine, from out of the corner of her eye. "So, Zoe how long have you worked in Holby?"

"8 years, what is it that you do? Max never mentioned it."

"That's because I doubt he knows himself." Greta replied, unable to resist taking another shot at her only child. "I run a costume store in York."

"How long have you been running that?" Zoe asked, feigning interest.

"Since Max left to go to university. Anyway, we aren't here to talk about me."

"You'd rather we were." Max muttered under his breath, relieved what it only seemed to be Zoe who had heard.

"How long have you two been together?" Greta asked but didn't really seem too interested.

"Just over a year." Zoe replied, thinking over the timeline of their relationship in her head.

"And you haven't popped the question yet Max?" Greta asked, not even attempting to hide the disapproval in her voice.

"Not yet, God mum you know how to ruin things. Do you know what, before you came we were happy and no one questioned out relationship."

"Maxwell, I was not questioning your relationship, I was merely asking when you were planning on proposing to this lovely woman who is so far out of your league that I'm surprised you got this far with her."

"I'm sorry but 'her' has a name, it's Zoe. I don't know why you seem to enjoy putting your son down but he's not out of my league, if anything he's out of mine. He's the most caring person I've ever met, he never fails to make me feel loved and safe. Each day he's around to remind me that life goes on beyond the hospital walls, his smile makes all my problems disappear and I trust him with my life. I don't know why I was so worried about you coming because I honestly don't care what you think about our relationship because we're happy and that's what matters."

"And maybe one day I'll propose, I will not be doing it because you say so though. I'll be doing it because this woman sat next to me is the love of my life and I can't imagine a day without her, when I feel the time is right then maybe I'll propose but that's up to me, not you mum."

"You finally grew a backbone." Greta commented, ignoring the rest of what she'd just been told.

"Yeah I did, now feel free to have dinner, that if it's up to your high standards but I'm not hungry. If you want me then I shall be snuggled up on the sofa with Zoe and a bottle of wine."

"Wait, I do approve and I'm sorry."


End file.
